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Title: Collaborative Visualization: Definition, Challenges, and Research Agenda

Journal Article · · Information Visualization

Collaborative visualization has emerged as a new research direction which offers the opportunity to reach new audiences and application areas for visualization tools and techniques. Technology now allows us to easily connect and collaborate with one another - in settings as diverse as over networked computers, across mobile devices, or using shared displays such as interactive walls and tabletop surfaces. Any of these collaborative settings carries a set of challenges and opportunities for visualization research. Digital information is already regularly accessed by multiple people together in order to share information, to view it together, to analyze it, or to form decisions. However, research on how to best support collaboration with and around visualizations is still in its infancy and has so far focused only on a small subset of possible application scenarios. The purpose of this article is (1) to provide a clear scope, definition, and overview of the evolving field of collaborative visualization, (2) to help pinpoint the unique focus of collaborative visualization with its specific aspects, challenges, and requirements within the intersection of general computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW) and visualization research, and (3) to draw attention to important future research questions to be addressed by the community. Thus, the goal of the paper is to discuss a research agenda for future work on collaborative visualization, including our vision for how to meet the grand challenge and to urge for a new generation of visualization tools that were designed with collaboration in mind from their very inception.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1029054
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-76373; 400904120; TRN: US201122%%685
Journal Information:
Information Visualization, Vol. 10, Issue 4
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English